Sharon’s blog

I was visiting friends in Aberdeenshire at the weekend as we were attending the Portsoy Boat Festival to represent Ocean Youth Trust Scotland. Before leaving to drive back home on Sunday I had a very interesting conversation with my hosts for the weekend, Pam and Stuart Cornwallis. I was talking about teaching the Nuclear Arms Race to my Higher class this week. Pam and Stuart suggested getting balls of various sizes and using these to demonstrate the changing technology and power that the Superpowers were developing at this time. I thought it sounded like a very good idea but was unsure about the logistics of the lesson.

Today I borrowed some table tennis balls, tennis balls and gym balls from a somewhat confused PE department. I laid out some plastic bottles on tables opposite each other to represent the Western Powers and the Soviet Union. Two pupils volunteered to act the part of firing the weapons. We started with the table tennis balls indicating the first atomic bombs. The pupils walked over to the opposing side representing the plane dropping the bombs. We saw that although damage was caused (some bottles were knocked down) the countries did still exist. We then moved on to the tennis balls which were thrown from the ‘home’ table demonstrating the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Again some more damage was done. Finally we threw the gym balls at the bottles which of course knocked down the lot (when the aim was on target). This was to demonstrate the theory of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). We then watched an episode of the Cold War series which introduced further the Arms race and the concept of MAD and the balance of terror that was created. I will now follow this with a more detailed look at the arms race but this seemed to work as a really great introducation to the topic. 

Thanks to Pam and Stuart for a great idea that I will further develop in the future!